Method and system for communicating with multiple user communities via a map

ABSTRACT

A method, device, and system for communicating with multiple users via a map over the Internet are disclosed. The device includes a processor for executing computer programs, a memory for storing data, an input module for entering user commands, a communication module for transmitting and receiving data, and a display for showing information on a screen. The device includes logic for showing at a top level multiple communities across the world for selection and further magnification of their locations by the user. Thus the user can keep track of multiple communities in a multilevel viewing environment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 11/361,268, filed on Feb. 24, 2006, entitled “Method and Systemfor Communicating with Multiple Users via a Map over the Internet”, nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,139,514, which is related to a concurrently filed U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 11/361,236, now U.S. Pat. No.7,450,003, the entireties of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of Internet Applications. Inparticular, the present invention relates to a method and system forcommunicating with multiple users via a map over the Internet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In recent years, the global position system (GPS) has been widelyadopted to assist motorists to navigate the road when driving to adestination. Many automobile manufacturers offer GPS navigation devicesbuilt in to the dash-board of the automobiles. In addition, there areportable GPS navigation devices that perform functions to those of thebuilt-in GPS devices in the automobiles, and the users can transfer themto be used in different cars. This type of GPS navigation deviceidentifies the locations of the motorists on a highway via satellitesand provides navigational instructions to the motorists while they aredriving. There is another type of portable GPS navigation device that isused by hikers to identify their locations in the mountains. However,these types of GPS devices do not work when the users are insidebuildings, such as a shopping mall, or in large open spaces such as anamusement park where geographic information may not exist. Moreover, thecurrent GPS navigation devices do not support communications amongmultiple users regarding their respective locations.

In circumstances when a group of users need to find each other in alarge building or in an amusement park, they use their cellular phonesto call each other back and forth, communicating information such aswhere their locations are, what their surroundings look like, and how tofind each other. Such phone calls back and forth are inefficient andtime-consuming.

Another conventional solution to this problem is to use the shortmessage service (SMS) technology whereby each user can send a short textmessage to the group informing them of her location. This is animprovement over the cellular phone method as the text message isbroadcasted to all members of the group (one-to-many communication) asopposed to two people talking on their respective cellular phones(point-to-point communication). However, this group of userscommunicates with each other without a clear idea of the location of theother members. They rely on each other's text description of theirrespective locations, which may be hard to describe or may take a longtime to type into a mobile device. In some cases, some people are notcomfortable in describing navigational or directional (north, east,south, west) instructions, which typically lead to wrong directions anda waste of time.

Therefore, there is a need for a method and system to keep track of thelocations of members in a user-defined group. There is a need for amethod and system for communicating with multiple users via a map overthe Internet.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a method for communicating with multiple users via amap over the Internet includes creating a map to share among a group ofusers, where each user uses a client device to communicate with otherusers in the group, displaying locations of the group of users on themap, where each user is represented by an icon, and broadcasting changesof a user's location to the group over the Internet.

In another embodiment, a device for communicating with multiple usersvia a map over the Internet includes a processor for executing computerprograms, a memory for storing data, an input module for entering usercommands, a communication module for transmitting and receiving data,and a display for showing information on a screen. The device furtherincludes logic for selecting a group of users, logic for creating a mapto share among the group of users, logic for displaying locations of thegroup of users on the map, and logic for broadcasting changes of auser's location to the group over the Internet.

In yet another embodiment, a system for communicating with multipleusers via a map over the Internet includes a back-end location storagesystem for storing user location information, a back-end map server forprocessing maps, a front-end map server for interfacing between clientdevices, the back-end location storage system, and the back-end mapserver through a communication network. The front-end map server furtherincludes means for creating a map to share among a group of users, meansfor monitoring locations of the group of users on the map, and means forbroadcasting changes of a user's location to the group over theInternet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The aforementioned features and advantages of the invention as well asadditional features and advantages thereof will be more clearlyunderstandable after reading detailed descriptions of embodiments of theinvention in conjunction with the following drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates a device and method for communicating with friends ona map according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method for placing a user onto a map according toan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates graphical representations showing where the user'sfriends are according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a graphical representation for communicating withfriends on a map according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates graphical representations of public and private mapsaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a graphical representation of another private mapshared among the friends according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 7A illustrates a graphical representation of using emotional iconson a public map according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7B illustrates a graphical representation of using emotional iconson a private map according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method for tagging contextual media to personallocations on a map according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a method for multilevel viewing of multiplecommunities according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a system for running map applications on a websiteaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates an implementation of the map domain of FIG. 10according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Methods and systems are provided for communicating with multiple usersvia a map over the Internet. The following descriptions are presented toenable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention.Descriptions of specific embodiments and applications are provided onlyas examples. Various modifications and combinations of the examplesdescribed herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art,and the general principles defined herein may be applied to otherexamples and applications without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limitedto the examples described and shown, but is to be accorded the widestscope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.

Some portions of the detailed description which follows are presented interms of flowcharts, logic blocks, and other symbolic representations ofoperations on information that can be performed on a computer system. Aprocedure, computer-executed step, logic block, process, etc., is hereconceived to be a self-consistent sequence of one or more steps orinstructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those utilizingphysical manipulations of physical quantities. These quantities can takethe form of electrical, magnetic, or radio signals capable of beingstored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in acomputer system. These signals may be referred to at times as bits,values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. Eachstep may be performed by hardware, software, firmware, or combinationsthereof.

FIG. 1 illustrates a device and method for communicating with friends ona map according to an embodiment of the present invention. In general,any mobile device, such as cellular phones or personal digitalassistants (PDAs), may be used to implement the functions of the presentinvention. In this example, the device for communicating with friends isa palmOne mobile device made by Palm, Inc. at 950 W. Maude Ave.,Sunnyvale, Calif. In this specification, the term “friend(s)” is usedgenerally to refer to anyone the user considers as a member in auser-defined community (also referred to as community, user-definedgroup, or group for short) that is interested in monitoring each other'slocation and status. Examples of a member of the user-defined communitymay be a friend, a relative, a colleague, an acquaintance, or a personto be met for the first time. On the screen of the mobile device, ageneral vicinity of the map 104 of interest is displayed. In theright-hand column of the screen 106, icons representing the user (me)108 and the user's friends Jon 110, Ed 112, and Sam 114 are shown. Theuser-defined community can be assembled from an address book, invitationservice, group membership. In another approach, the user may manuallyadd friends to the community by using the add-friends button 116, or theuser may also delete a friend from the community. Next to each friend'sicon in the right-hand column, there is an email icon 118 that allowsthe user to send an email to that friend, and there is a phone icon 120that allows the user to make a phone call to that friend. Once the emailor phone icon is selected and pressed, the mobile device automaticallyretrieves the email address or phone number respectively from the user'saddress book to initial the email or phone call.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method for placing a user onto a map according toan embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, a series ofscreen shots are shown to illustrate the steps in placing the user ontoa map. In the first screen 202, the user icon 204 is selected to beplaced onto the map. The user icon 204 is highlighted after it has beenselected. In the second screen 206, the user icon 208 is being draggedto a location on the map. In one approach, portions of the map may behighlighted to indicate they are valid drop targets when the draggeduser icon crosses over map boundaries. On the third screen 210, the usericon 212 is on top of a valid drop target representing the user'scurrent location in the map. Finally, on the fourth screen 214, the usericon 216 is released and overlaid on the map. If the user icon beingdragged is on top of an invalid drop target, the user icon would not beoverlaid on the map. The user icon 218 in the right-hand column remainsto be highlighted, indicating the user has placed herself on the map. Inthis approach, the location of the user on the map is determined by aself-placement location directed by the user. In another approach, thelocation of the user on the map may be determined by using textual data,such as an address or a business name, supplied by the user. In yetanother approach, the location of the user on the may be determined byusing a picture of the area such as an airplane view of an area or apicture of the location such as a picture of the front entrance of abusiness. After the user icon 218 has been placed on the map, an alertmessage may be forwarded to the user's friends to inform them the useris on the map. Other icons of the friends who have not yet placedthemselves on the map, such as the icons for Jon 220, Ed 222, and Sam224, remain faded on the screen of the user's mobile device.

FIG. 3 illustrates graphical representations showing where the user'sfriends are according to an embodiment of the present invention. Thefirst screen 302 shows the user 304 has placed herself on the map in SanFrancisco as icon 306, while other users in the user-defined communityhave not yet placed themselves on the map. In the second screen 308, asecond user Ed 310 has placed himself on the map near Foster City asicon 312. After a user has placed herself on the map, the user may postshort instant messages (IM) from a set of previously prepared shortmessage service (SMS) type of messages or by typing in her own message.The SMS technology is used to send queries as text messages over mobiledevices. Examples of short instant messages are: “I'm here”, “On myway”, “Late”, “Made it”, “Where are you?”, “Call me”, “I'm lost. Help!”.In general, a message sent from a user may be in any format, such asvoice, text, video, image, or graphics. In this case, once Ed has placedhimself on the map, he posts the message “made it! you?” as shown in thedialog box 314. Other friends in the group would receive this messagefrom Ed.

FIG. 4 illustrates a graphical representation for communicating withfriends on a map according to an embodiment of the present invention. Asshown in FIG. 4, the map shows the greater San Francisco Bay Area, wherethree of the four friends in the user-defined community have beendisplayed on the map, including the user (me) 402, Ed 404, and Sam 406,and the respective icons on the map for the user (me) 408, Ed (410), andSam (412). Upon putting themselves on the map, each friend can updatehis or her message and location as appropriate. For example, Ed 404 hasarrived at the destination and updates his friends with the instantmessage 414 “playing craps”. Each time a member of the community updateshis or her status, an alert message is sent to the other members of thegroup. In this manner, the present invention provides a platform toallow the four friends to declare themselves as a community, andprovides the ability to communicate with each other through a sharedmap. Through this connected media space, the group of friends has asynchronized awareness of the locations and statuses of the othermembers.

In one embodiment, the disclosed method may incorporate the globalposition system (GPS) capabilities of a mobile device, which isavailable in some of the cellular phones. In this example, when Sam 406turns on her mobile device, her location may be determined by using theglobal position of her mobile device and she can be automatically placedon the map, showing she is on Highway 101 driving to the destination.Thus it makes sense to her friends when Sam sends a message 416 “late—onmy way”.

FIG. 5 illustrates graphical representations of public and private mapsaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. In this example,the screen 502 shows a public map of the greater San Francisco Bay Areawhere all four friends of the user-defined community have arrived at thedestination. The location of the friends is shown as a cluster of icons504, which is also referred to as a map icon. In one approach, a mapicon may includes a thumbnail image of the user-defined private map, aname of the user-defined private map, a number of users in theuser-defined private map, or a list of user names in the user-definedprivate map. In another approach, a map icon may also include an imageof the user, a graphic image chosen by the user, a phrase chosen by theuser, a label representing the emotional state of the user, a labelrepresenting the status of the user, or a label representing an actionperformed by the user. Upon arrival, each friend may send an instantmessage regarding his or her status or whereabouts.

As discussed in the background section, while conventional GPS devicesare useful in providing guidance to people on the road; they often donot provide adequate information for people to locate their friends upontheir arrival at the destination. For example, GPS does not workindoors, within a large building such as a convention center. Thepresent invention bridges this gap by providing solutions to allow thefriends to locate each other easily and efficiently where GPS is notavailable, either on the device itself or is not working such as inside.

In one approach, after the group of four friends has arrived at thedestination, they may create a private map to share among themselves asthere may not be a public map available to identify the locations of thefriends. The disclosed method allows the friends to attach a private mapto the public map at any location of interest, and be able to zoom intothe private map from the public map. In addition, the disclosed methodallows the friends to annotate and share the private map in a widevariety of data formats, such as photo images, hand-drawn images, and ascanned image from a local map. As shown on the screen of the mobiledevice 506, a photograph 508 is used as a private map shared among thefriends. The photograph 508 may be taken by the camera built in to themobile device 506. On the photograph 508, each friend may identify hisor her location on this shared private map (photograph).

In another approach, a hand-drawn map 518 is used to communicate theirlocations to each other on the mobile device 516. In this example, threeof the four friends have put themselves on the map, as shown by theicons 520, 522, and 524 respectively.

FIG. 6 illustrates a graphical representation of another private mapshared among the friends according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The screen 602 is an enlarged picture shown by the mobiledevice 604; the screen shows a floor plan of a private location for acompany party, for example. Note that the private map of this companyparty venue may be obtained in various ways. It may be downloaded to themobile device from a website or from an email attachment. This privatemap may also be obtained by taking a picture of the venue map handed outat the entrance using the camera of the mobile device and converting thephoto image into a shared map. The shared map may be created in any dataformat, such as JPEG, TIF, Word, Powerpoint, etc. In this example, thefour friends me 606, Jon 608, Ed 610, and Sam 612 have put theirrespective locations 614, 616, 618, and 620 on this private map. Inanother example, if the friends are in an amusement park or a shoppingmall, a photo image of the map or directory of the amusement park orshopping mall may be used as the shared private map for the group offriends.

Each friend may send an instant message to communicate with otherfriends in the group. For example, upon arrival, the user (me) 606 maysend the message “I'm here @ front door”. By doing so, the messagebrings up the application in her friends' mobile devices informing themof her arrival and waiting for their responses. In response, Jon 608 maysend the message “Bar by games”. Ed 610 can send the message “playingpoker w/sam”, and Sam 612 can send the message “with ed”. In this way,the friends keep each other informed of their whereabouts, and it wouldbe easy to find each other in a large, crowded, and noisy place wherecellular phones may not be an effective means for communicating withother members of the group.

Over time, each of the friends may have moved around, and theirpositions on the map may not be updated. The application enablesinteractive update of a person's location by simply dragging her icon toa new location on the shared map. Each update from one of the friendsmay be broadcasted to the group, which provides incentive for otherfriends to update their respective locations. This method ofcommunication is much more efficient than having the friends call eachother back and forth to describe their new locations and to keepeveryone in the group informed where their friends are.

In yet another example, a shared map of a different venue can beemployed to assist a group of friends in locating each other. Forexample, the seating charts of a stadium, such as the Stanford Stadium,can be imported to be the shared map in the event the group of friendshas different seats to the sports event. In addition, the seating chartsof movie theaters or concert halls can be imported as the shared map.Moreover, an interior layout of a building can also be imported as theshared map. Such seating charts and interior layout of a building may bedownloaded prior to attending the event, or the friends may be promptedto download the seating chart interactively when they arrive at theevent.

FIG. 7A illustrates a graphical representation of using emotional iconson a public map according to an embodiment of the present invention. Thescreen 702 shows a map of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The groupof friends has placed themselves on the map with their choice ofemotional icons, also known as emoticons. By doing so, the group offriends is socially linked to each other through a shared map. Inaddition to providing location information on the map, the emoticonsprovide an emotional message from each member of the group. For example,the emoticons may show happy, sad, frustrated, stressed, excited, bored,or other types of faces. In other embodiments, labels representingstatus of the friends, such as in transit, on the freeway, off thefreeway, or other status messages, may be displayed on the map. In yetother embodiments, labels representing actions performed by the friends,such as parking my car, just arrived, on foot, running, etc., may bedisplayed on the map. In this example, Karon, Sam, Edward, and Jonathanare represented by the emoticons 704, 706, 708, and 710 respectively.FIG. 7B illustrates a graphical representation of using emotional iconson a private map according to an embodiment of the present invention.The screen 712 shows a map of a private venue of interest. The group offriends has placed themselves on the map with emoticons. Similarly,Karon, Sam, Edward, and Jonathan are represented by the emoticons 714,716, 718, and 720 respectively. In general, different type of icons maybe used in place of the emoticons. For examples, an icon may be an imageof the user, a graphic image chosen by the user, or a phrase chosen bythe user.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method for tagging contextual media to personallocations on a map according to an embodiment of the present invention.The disclosed method enables each of the friends to attach mediainformation regarding his or her location and share information aboutwhat he or she is doing or watching among the friends in the group. Ingeneral, most people are better at locating distinct landmarks thanlocating names, numbers, or navigating through directional (north, east,south, west) instructions. When a person searches for a particularplace, it would be helpful to look for a certain distinct landmarkrather than a particular name or number. For example, it would be easierto look for a shop with a picture of the entrance of the shop displayedin one's mobile device than to look for the shop that is located at B230in the shopping mall's directory. By having the ability to attach apicture to the map in this application, a member in the group can take apicture of a distinct location near her. And the picture can be sent toher friends to assist them in finding her.

As shown in FIG. 8, five members of the group have placed themselves ona shared map 801, which in this example is a venue map for a companyparty. The group of friends Jonathan, Karon, Edward, Sam, and Chad arerepresented by the emoticons 802, 806, 810, 811, and 814 respectively.In this figure, Jonathan is near the buffet stand, and he may attach apicture of chefs preparing food 804; Karon is near the main entrance,and she may attach a picture of the entrance 808; Edward and Sam are ashow on the second stage, and they may attach a picture of the show 812;and Chad is watching a show on the main stage, and he may attach apicture of the band on stage 816. The multimedia messaging service (MMS)technology is used to transfer images among the group of friends betweentheir corresponding mobile devices. With the contextual informationattached to each friend's location on the shared private map, it iseasier for the group of friends to find each other.

FIG. 9 illustrates a method for multilevel viewing of multiplecommunities according to an embodiment of the present invention. In thisexample, at the top level, multiple communities are shown in SanFrancisco 903, New York 904, London 905, Baghdad 906, and Sydney 907 ona world map 902. A user in the general community may navigate a localcommunity to view the status of the members in that community. Forexample, when a user clicks on the community in San Francisco 903, aregional map of the San Francisco Bay Area 908 is shown in the lowerleft corner. If the user further clicks on the group of friendsindicated by emoticons 910, a venue map 912 of that location isdisplayed to show the whereabouts of the two friends 913 and 914 in thevenue map 912. In this manner, a user may keep track of multiplecommunities in a multilevel viewing environment.

FIG. 10 illustrates a system for running map applications on a websiteaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The system includesone or more Internet content provider servers 1002, databases 1005, andone or more clients 1004. The servers 1002 interface with the clients1004 via a communication network 1003. The Internet content providerservers 1002 are host servers operable to provide content to clients1004 via the network 1003. One or more of the servers host websites andinclude the map functions. The databases 1005 are operable to store dataprovided by the servers 1002 and/or clients 1004. The databases cancommunicate with the servers 1002 or clients 1004 via the network 1003.The databases can store data items included in the web pages, such asmaps and user information.

Alternatively, the servers 1002 may include the databases, processors,switches, routers, interfaces, and other components and modules. Each ofthe servers 1002 may comprise one or more servers, or may be combinedinto a fewer number of servers than shown, depending on computationaland/or distributed computing requirements. The servers 1002 may belocated at different locations relative to each other. The databases mayalso be separately connected to the servers 1002. There may be more orless than two databases, depending on computational and/or distributedcomputing requirements. The databases may be located at differentlocations relative to each other and the servers 1002.

Each of the clients 1004 may be a general-purpose computer, such as apersonal computer, having a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, aninput device, an output device, and a display. Other computer systemconfigurations, including Internet appliances, hand-held devices,wireless devices, portable devices, wearable computers, cellular ormobile phones, portable digital assistants (PDAs), multi-processorsystems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,set-top boxes, network PCs, mini-computers, and the like may also beimplemented as the clients 1004. Each of the clients 1004 may alsoimplement analog and digital baseband circuitry, power managementcircuitry, radio frequency (RF) transceiver, and battery interface andcharging circuitry. Clients 1004 may include one or more applications,program modules, and/or sub-routines. As an example, clients 1004 mayinclude a browser application (e.g., Internet Explorer, etc.) and agraphical user interface (GUI) to access websites and web pages providedby the servers 1002 and data stored at the databases 1005. Clients 1004may be remote from each other, the servers 1002, and/or the databases1005.

The network 1003 is a communications network, such as a local areanetwork (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet. When thenetwork 1003 is a public network, security features (e.g., VPN/SSLsecure transport) may be included to ensure authorized access within thesystem.

The servers 1002 further include a plurality of individual domains, forexample, shopping domain 1006, news domain 1008, maps domain 1010, andother domains 1012. A domain is a computer system implemented withdifferent hardware and software for a specific application, such as theshopping applications, news applications, and maps applications. Themaps applications of the present invention are run on the maps domain1010, which implement Web 2.0 functionalities using a combination ofHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML” (AJAX).

In particular, JavaScript is used to create, monitor, change, anddestroy objects and change the state of various image objects, inaddition to keeping track of browser behavior changes initiated by theuser. For example, when a user starts dragging an original thumbnailimage in the browser window, the browser fires “mouse down” and “mousemove” events which are captured by the JavaScript, and an object iscreated to handle the event. The object is effectively a copy of theoriginal thumbnail image, and the copy of the image is being movedaround. In other words, each object has states, and such states arecreated and modified in response to user-initiated changes (events) tothe browser behavior.

As described above, the process of monitoring and updating states of anobject is event-driven. When a user performs a specific action,JavaScript that runs in the background determines the exact browserevent that has been initiated according to a set of user cases. Forexample, if the user clicks outside an icon and drags, that action isinterpreted as the intent to draw a selection rectangle. Similarly, ifthe user clicks directly on an icon and starts to move by a distancegreater than five pixels, that action is interpreted as a drag. Then,the JavaScript starts to monitor the mouse movement and attaches theicon to the cursor at that point. While moving the cursor, theJavaScript updates the attached icon's positions and waits for the userto release the icon. Upon the icon's being released, the JavaScriptdetermines the location of the cursor within the browser window. If theicon is dropped on a valid drop target, the icon is placed on thedropped location on the map. If the icon is dropped on an invalid droptarget, a reset action is initiated, and the icon is snapped back to itsoriginal location. While the user is dragging an icon, the JavaScriptmonitors where the cursor is, and determines whether it is over a validdrop target or an invalid drop target. When the cursor is over a validdrop target, the JavaScript causes the valid drop target to behighlighted, providing a positive feedback to the user. When the cursormoves out of the valid drop target, the JavaScript deactivates thehighlighted area.

FIG. 11 illustrates an implementation of the map domain of FIG. 10according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.11, the maps domain includes a front-end map server 1102, a back-end mapserver 1104, and a back-end location storage system 1106. The front-endmap server 1102, a back-end map server 1104, and a back-end locationstorage system 1106 are connected via any known type of network 1108 orcommunication mechanism.

The front-end map server 1102 performs several functions. It acceptsrequests for map tiles from the client and fetches them from theback-end map server 1104. Where necessary, the front-end map server 1102may perform additional processing on the map tiles such as cropping orscaling, before returning them to the client. It also accepts requestsfor current location information about groups of users. These areobtained from the back-end location storage system 1106. It alsoreceives requests to update the user's location, which is stored in theback-end location storage system 1106. Requests for map tiles may becombined with a user's location data in the front-end map server 1102,although leaving this to the client is preferred.

In addition, the front-end map server performs the function of linkingthe one or more user-defined private maps to the public map.Specifically, it associates the public map and the one or moreuser-defined private maps as linked set of maps, where each map islinked to another map in the linked set of maps. It may access thelinked set of maps through the corresponding map icons. In one approach,the front-end map server 1102 may associates a single point in a firstmap to a single point in a second map in the linked set of maps byperforming mathematical translations between the first map's coordinatesystem and the second map's coordinate system. It may also associates anarea in a first map to a second map in the linked set of maps byperforming mathematical translations between the first map's coordinatesystem and the second map's coordinate system. Note that these functionsof the front-end map server may also be performed at the client device.

The front-end client or device (shown as item 1004 in FIG. 10) takes themap provided by the back-end map server 1104 and the locationinformation retrieved from the back-end location storage system 1106 andplots one on the other. Multiple users can be plotted at once, anddifferent types of information can be switched on and off (e.g., onlyshow their emoticon and name). The front-end client is responsible forconverting the map's coordinate system to a local screen-based version,where parts of the map (and therefore users) may be off-screen and canbe scrolled on. The front-end client may connect directly to only thefront-end map server, or to any of the back-end servers depending on theclient's capabilities.

Front-end clients on desktops may be implemented with web browsers suchas DHTML and JavaScript to render a scrollable map from tiles. AJAX ornormal form posting/page fetching may be used to read/write new userlocation details to the back-end map server 1104 and the back-endlocation storage system 1106. Front-end mobile clients on cellularphones or PDAs may be developed natively for each type of mobile device,or on some more common platform. In one approach, the J2ME (mobile Java)is used to communicate with the back-end location storage system 1106and the back-end map server 1104 via HTTP.

A user's location is represented using some kind of coordinate system,such as latitude and longitude (and height), or most simply x and y (andz) in the back-end location storage system 1106. Each user's locationcan be annotated with a number of other pieces of information, includingbut not limited to: the user's name, the user's nickname, an emoticon, astatus message, an indicator showing how long it was since the user lastupdated its location, a photograph of the user's surroundings, an audioclip, and an IM. In one approach, this information is stored in arelational database. In another embodiment, this information may bestored as specific “tag” information on a photo in a photo-sharingsystem, such as the Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) in Yahoo's photodomain. The back-end location storage system 1106 may be implementedusing an (SQL) database behind any web technology, such as the PHP, and.NET.

Updates to the back-end location storage system 1106 may be logged bythe database by time, so that other information not taggedgeographically (not geo-tagged), like a phone taken by a camera, can geta location associated with it using a combination of the media'screation timestamp with the date a person's location was updated. Thedatabase should support an external API that a user may log into andquery for her location at a given time (or over a time-range). Note thata person may have multiple “valid” locations at any given time in thedatabase. For example, a user may be at Disneyland with a certaingeo-coordinate and also inside the haunted house at a certain room andfloor. The “manual” process of providing coordinates means that theupdates may be sent to the database from either a mapping application,or from another source, like a normal web page.

The back-end map server 1104 is responsible for providing the map theuser's coordinates are referencing. This may be a tile server providinga collection of “tiles” (or pieces of a map) to a particular clientdevice, or may be a server providing a single photograph of a locationof interest, or some combination thereof (a tile server serving uppieces of any two-dimensional map/photograph).

In the back-end map server 1104, sub-maps contain additional informationabout which maps are contained within them, and which maps they arecontained in. In each case, there is a mathematical transformationbetween the different coordinate systems used by the different maps. Forexample, a sub-map of a restaurant's seating chart may be represented asa single latitude and longitude on a world map. A venue may berepresented as a set of latitude and longitude points (forming apolygon), where there exists a mapping between the venue's x and y pointand the latitude and longitude on the main map, and thus the sub-map canbe shown as an area on the world map. A user's location on one map cantherefore be obtained by transforming her local coordinates at eachsub-map until the world-map is reached, or until the top-level map withno other container is reached.

The back-end map server 1104 includes data that makes up the map. Theback-end map server 1104 also performs the function of pre-rendering thedata into tiles, and post-processing the data to make the tiles or mapscompatible with the front-end map server 1102 and clients. For example,the data that makes up the map may include vector information (lines forstreets etc.). This data is used to create tiles, which are small squareimages that graphically represent that vector information. These tilesare typically served as in Yahoo! Maps. The post-processing step may berequired to cut these tile's into smaller pieces to accommodate the poornetwork and memory characteristics of mobile devices. Other sources ofmaps include photo databases, like Flickr, which may be pre-processedinto tiles, or may be processed as needed into tiles or some form ofscaled images.

It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity hasdescribed embodiments of the invention with reference to differentfunctional units and processors. However, it will be apparent that anysuitable distribution of functionality between different functionalunits or processors may be used without detracting from the invention.For example, functionality illustrated to be performed by separateprocessors or controllers may be performed by the same processors orcontrollers. Hence, references to specific functional units are to beseen as references to suitable means for providing the describedfunctionality rather than indicative of a strict logical or physicalstructure or organization.

The invention can be implemented in any suitable form, includinghardware, software, firmware, or any combination of these. The inventionmay optionally be implemented partly as computer software running on oneor more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elementsand components of an embodiment of the invention may be physically,functionally, and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, thefunctionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality ofunits, or as part of other functional units. As such, the invention maybe implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionallydistributed between different units and processors.

One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that many possiblemodifications and combinations of the disclosed embodiments may be used,while still employing the same basic underlying mechanisms andmethodologies. The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation,has been written with references to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described to explain the principles of theinvention and their practical applications, and to enable others skilledin the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments withvarious modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: displaying, by a processor,a first map image comprising a world map at a first level ofmagnification to a user; displaying, by the processor, presence of aplurality of user communities respectively situated at a plurality oflocations, at least two of the plurality of locations being in differentcountries on the first map; facilitating, by the processor, displaynavigation of the user to at least one of the user communities to viewstatus of members in the at least one user community wherein the atleast one community does not include the user; receiving, by theprocessor, a selection of the at least one user community navigated toby the user wherein the selected user community comprises at least twousers located at a venue; displaying, by the processor, a second mapimage of a location of the selected community at a second level ofmagnification; receiving, by the processor, a further selection of thecommunity associated with the second map image by the user; displaying,by the processor, a venue map of the location at which the selectedcommunity is situated at a third level of magnification showingrespective locations of the at least two users in the selected communitywithin the venue upon the further selection, and displaying, by theprocessor, the first map image, the second map image and the venue mapat respective magnification levels in a single multi-level view showingthe plurality of user communities.
 2. The method of claim 1, the secondmap image is map of a city.
 3. The method of claim 1, the third level ofmagnification is greater than the second level of magnification and thesecond level of magnification is greater than the first level ofmagnification.
 4. The method of claim 1, users in the plurality of usercommunities are associated with emoticons that provide an emotionalmessage to other users.
 5. The method of claim 1, receiving, by theprocessor, an image of a location of a user in the selected community.6. The method of claim 5, displaying, by the processor, the image inconjunction with a representation of the user on the venue map.
 7. Acomputing device comprising: a processor; a non-transitory storagemedium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by theprocessor, the program logic comprising: first map image display logic,executed by the processor, for displaying, a first map image comprisinga world map at a first level of magnification to a user and fordisplaying presence of a plurality of user communities respectivelysituated at a plurality of locations, wherein at least two of theplurality of locations being in different countries on the first map;facilitating logic, executed by the processor, for facilitating displaynavigation of the user to at least one of the user communities to viewstatus of members in the at least one user community wherein the atleast one user community does not include the user; user communityselection receiving logic, executed by the processor, for receiving aselection of the community navigated to by the user; second map imagedisplay logic, executed by the processor, for displaying a second mapimage of a location of the selected community at a second level ofmagnification upon receiving the selection; receiving logic, executed bythe processor, for receiving a further selection of the communityassociated with the second map image by the user wherein the selecteduser community comprises at least two users located at a venue; venuemap display logic, executed by the processor, to display a venue map ofthe location at which the selected community is situated at a thirdlevel of magnification showing respective locations of the at least twousers in the selected community within the venue upon the furtherselection; and logic for displaying the first map image, the second mapimage and the venue map are at respective magnification levels in asingle multi-level view showing the plurality of user communities. 8.The computing device of claim 7, the second map image is map of a city.9. The computing device of claim 7, the third level of magnification isgreater than the second level of magnification and the second level ofmagnification is greater than the first level of magnification.
 10. Thecomputing device of claim 7, users in the at least one user communityare associated with emoticons that provide an emotional message to otherusers.
 11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, havingstored thereon, processor-executable instructions for: displaying afirst map image comprising a world map at a first level of magnificationto a user; indicating presence of a plurality of user communitiesrespectively situated at a plurality of locations, at least two of theplurality of locations being in different countries on the first map;facilitating display navigation of the user to at least one of the usercommunities to view status of members in the community wherein the atleast one user community does not include the user; receiving aselection of the at least one user community navigated to by the userwherein the selected user community comprises at least two users locatedat a venue; displaying a second map image of a location of the selectedcommunity at a second level of magnification; receiving a furtherselection of the community by the user; displaying a venue map of thelocation at which the selected community is situated at a third level ofmagnification showing respective locations of the at least two users inthe selected community within the venue upon the further selection, theinstructions for displaying the first map, the second map and the venuemap further cause a display of the first map image, the second map imageand the venue map at respective magnification levels in a singlemulti-level view showing the plurality of user communities.
 12. Themedium of claim 11, the third level of magnification is greater than thesecond level of magnification and the second level of magnification isgreater than the first level of magnification.